Again, much thanks to Epona Harper, who gets all the credit for taking my Rhinox's rather garbed explanation and turning it into something legible.

Chapter 6 – Analysis

When Bumblebee had realised what had happened, he'd gathered Deuce up in his arms, and headed for the med bay. Maggie made to follow, only to be stopped by a voice echoing down the corridor.

"Stay at the control panel!"

As the large frame vanished, she turned back to the screens, but closed her laptop once again – she wasn't going to be able to work.

So more Decepticons were on their way. Judging from the speed their new guy had managed, they were about a month out. If they were lucky, maybe more Autobots would show up on the scanners before then. Perhaps if they could boost the signal…but then, no doubt Optimus and the others had already tried that.

Bumblebee's head looked up as he heard heels walking towards him, and Maggie hurried in.

"Hax is in the computer."

Bumblebee sighed. "I'll go get him. Maybe he can help."

"You sure?"

"Deuce won't be able to take him back through your phone like this – best if it's mech to mech."

He headed for the door. "Besides, I need to talk to him."

"So, Deuce is the youngling that contacted me?"

Mikaela was gripping her seatbelt with such intensity that she didn't hear the question at first – news of Deuce's collapse had spurred the Autobots in ignoring speed laws.

"Mikaela?"

'You still with us, girl?'

At Ironhide's question, Mikaela snapped out of it, and tried to clear her thoughts.

"Sorry, what?"

Rhinox chuckled. "Deuce. Is he the youngling I spoke to?"

The girl thought back, and, unsure as to how Rhinox would see it, shook her head. "Not exactly. You probably spoke to Hax."

The interior jerked in surprise. "There are two younglings?"

'Not exactly,' Ratchet butted in – clearly all the Autobots were listening in on this conversation. 'It's difficult to explain.'

Still, Mikaela did her best. "Okay…first there was Deuce, but then he had an…" she struggled for the best term. "…Accident, and his spark split a little. So now he has this program, 'Hax', in his head."

Rhinox didn't reply, clearly mulling this over.

"The being I talked to was no mere program."

'And technically, he's not,' Ratchet admitted. 'We've just gotten used to describing him as such.'

'We can probably explain this better back at the base,' Jazz interrupted. 'Sides, it's too complicated to do en route.'

There was a mutual agreement, and the convoy sped up.

"So what about you?"

"Hmm?"

"Ironhide and Ratchet seem to know you, but I don't really get why a scientist would need guns like that."

"There is a war going on."

"And yet Ratchet, who's one of Optimus' elite, only has one gun and those saws," Mikaela argued. "And the saws are medical tools."

"Point taken," Rhinox replied. "Perhaps they are somewhat extreme, but I wanted to be prepared. The rest of the team just wasn't built for heavy artillery. At the beginning of the war, just before it blew up so spectacularly, a small team was dispatched to find a peaceful resolution to the arguments. We were all scientists or explorers, those with talents that would be useful on a mission like ours."

"What was the mission?" Mikaela asked.

Rhinox fell silent for a moment, carefully framing his words before continuing.

"To discover the origin of the Allspark."

"The ultimate origin of our conflict was a fundamental difference in worldviews. Megatron wished to utilize the power of the Allspark to establish Cybertronian rule over the galaxy. He believed that it had brought life to Cybertron for the purpose of creating an army that would bring order to the universe by whatever means necessary. Optimus opposed this, espousing the idea that all sentient beings had the right to choose their own way. According to his view, the creation of sentient life – free, sentient life – in and of itself was the purpose of the Cube. If it had not intended us to choose our own way, it would have created drones. Therefore, why should we deny to other races that which had been given us? The argument eventually led to our own proposal. We would seek out the origins of the Allspark and attempt to discover who or what created it and what was their fate. Was it sent to Cybertron on purpose or was it a cosmic accident? If it was sent out with purpose, was that purpose one that we should follow or reject? The two philosophies that were tearing our world apart were, to be perfectly honest, founded on assumptions that could not be proven either way. Having some hard facts might have made a difference. "

"Sounds like a lot was riding on this," Mikaela mused.

"Finding our origins could have unlocked the secret of life for us," Rhinox admitted. "We wanted to learn our history, and perhaps in doing so, find a way out of the chaos we had created. Sadly it was all for naught – the longer we searched, the worse the war became. Decepticon raiding parties were a constant, until we lost contact with Cybertron altogether, and our team was forced to separate."

"What happened to them?"

Rhinox's voice was tinged with regret. "I don't know. By the time I lost the Decepticons chasing me, they were gone. And I've seen none of them since. Afterwards, all I could do was keep chasing down the clues we had found, hoping they would do the same. I thought I'd finally achieved the impossible when I found traces of the Allspark's energy, only to find Prime's message. Before then, I hadn't even known Cybertron was dead."

'Primus, that's rough,' Jazz said. 'Can't have been easy to accept.'

"No," Rhinox replied. "It wasn't."

Bumblebee stormed into the control room, not bothering with the controls as he accessed the screens with his processor. In moments, the download was in progress and Bumblebee felt the presence of a guilty and somewhat scared being in his mind.

-Hi, Bee-

-What. Were. You. Thinking!? –

Something twinged, a virtual flinch. –I thought I'd be back before anyone knew! I just wanted to meet Rhinox-

-Rhinox? –

-New guy. Big. Scientist-slash-explorer-slash-very big guns- Hax explained. –I didn't think it would cause any problems! –

Something began to nag at Bee's processor. –Hax, were you with Deuce when he collapsed the first time? –

-No,- Hax admitted. –I got back just as he started to wake up.-

Bumblebee held his head in his hands. Hax's tendency to be ignored had made them miss something vital.

-Then perhaps your 'trips' are what's causing this.-

-What! – Hax shrieked. –No way! I've left him way longer than this before, and he's been fine.-

-Maybe,- Bumblebee amended. –But there's only one way to find out.-

As he spoke, the Camaro headed back towards the med bay, and Maggie looked up from Deuce when he entered.

"Any change?"

The woman shook her head. "Still out like a light."

Bumblebee nodded, and his hand curled around Deuce's far smaller limb.

-Okay Hax, try going back,- he urged.

And so he did.

Hax groaned as the images began to flash.

-Oh great, not this again! -

A sunset on a cliff…

Mikaela smiling over him, yellow chrome underneath…

A crowd of humans staring, snickering…

Laughing as he opened a box to find a furious bundle of fluff…

And running. Always running…

With a final flash, they were gone, leaving Hax in companionable darkness.

- …Hax? –

Dread filled Hax's spark. –Deuce, did you just wake up? –

Deuce groaned. –I think so. What happened? –

- …I screwed up. And I've got a very angry and worried Camaro waiting on the other side-

'Autobots' Bumblebee commed, relief in his voice. 'Deuce is awake.'

The convoy immediately began to slow, the urgency passed.

'Well thank Primus for that,' Ratchet stated. 'This spell was shorter, I wonder if that's significant.'

'I think it was to do with Hax,' Bumblebee replied. 'Apparently, he slipped off to meet Rhinox with one of you. The minute he returned, Deuce woke up.'

Ratchet groaned. "And he was away the first time too. Slag, how did we not think about that?"

Beside him, Jazz cursed inwardly. He should have forced Hax back the second he found him. What a mess.

For the medic and the Younglings, it was not a pleasant afternoon. Despite protests, Ratchet had insisted on being alone with Deuce first, and now the youngling was wincing while Ratchet practiced his long-mastered art of yelling-while-examining.

"And when your sidekick decides to go sightseeing, tell us immediately! And Hax! Do you try to make life difficult for yourself? Or does it just come naturally?"

Deuce curled in on himself, directing his ire inwards, much to Hax's annoyance.

-Hey! It's not my fault he has to yell at you to yell at me! –

"From now on, Deuce doesn't leave the med bay," Ratchet ordered. "And Hax stays put. You don't leave him long enough to check your email on the base computer! Understood?"

"Until when?" Deuce whimpered.

"Until I say otherwise!"

The bike clearly wanted to protest, but one look at Ratchet's face, and he fell in submission. He'd really worried the medic.

Ratchet leaned on the berth and sighed. Though they didn't need to breathe, the action seemed to work wonders on humans trying to reign in their tempers.

"So…do you know what's wrong?" asked Deuce.

Before Ratchet could reply, Optimus hailed his comm.

"Ratchet, are you done? We need to discuss this. Can you come to the control room?"

The medic winced, and looked over at Deuce.

"You going to behave yourself for once?"

Deuce nodded.

"Good. I'll be back soon with Jazz and Bumblebee. No doubt the two are making grooves in the floor by now."

It wasn't much, but at least he could see the youngling smile before he left.

While waiting for Ratchet to finish, Rhinox had been given a briefing on Deuce's origins. Unsurprisingly, the mech had been more than slightly sceptical, so he'd been given access to Ratchet's files on the conversion, as well as the files on the birth of Hax. He hadn't said a word since, merely going over the data again and again.

Jazz had been leaning against the console, watching him.

"Trust me, it doesn't get any less weird no matter how many times you go over it. Take it from someone who's tried."

Rhinox's optics glanced over for a moment.

"But you are not a scientist, and as such there are facets to this you possibly won't grasp completely. I find it fascinating."

He received a pair of disbelieving optics in return, and chuckled.

"It is. Back when Cybertron was still in its full glory, one of the more interesting debates was on the possibility of sentience in organic lifeforms. Not only has Deuce proven this positive on a number of levels, Hax has become the only Cybertronian to be created through means other than the Allspark. There are scientists who would claw out their optics just for a day with them."

"They aren't test subjects."

Rhinox glanced over to the yellow 'bot who had started to glare at him.

"That's not my intention," he tried to soothe. "I'm just saying that the circumstances allow for some fascinating discussion."

It didn't really seem to placate Bumblebee, but before he could reply, Ratchet walked in, immediately becoming everyone's focus.

"It's Hax alright."

The Autobots tensed, but it was Optimus who spoke first.

"How?"

Ratchet shook his head. "Don't ask me how, but he's gotten wired into the vital areas of Deuce's processor, Deuce literally can't function without him anymore. Whenever Hax leaves, Deuce's processor jams up and goes into a delayed shutdown. That's what's causing these blackouts."

Ironhide growled, scratching at his face plates. "Just one more problem we can't deal with. How the slag did Hax and Deuce pull this off?"

"I don't even want to fathom a guess," Ratchet replied. "But given how quickly Deuce fell the second time, he's becoming more and more reliant on Hax. We can't let him out anymore, or we could end up causing Deuce permanent damage."

Optimus nodded. As much as he hated the idea of having to restrict Hax to Deuce's processor permanently, it was necessary for both. "Agreed."

"Actually, that could be the very last thing you want to do."

Rhinox had stood up, looking Ratchet optic to optic. "This is only a theory, but if my hypothesis is correct, we need to separate the two of them. As soon as possible."

"How come? This…glitch going to be dangerous?" Jazz asked.

Rhinox seemed to struggle with his next words. "Not dangerous so much as damaging. It seems fairly obvious from the files that Hax is dependant on Deuce for his continued existence, while Deuce has survived without Hax for most of his life. Why would that suddenly change?"

Ratchet blinked. "You don't think it changed at all. That this was meant to happen?"

Rhinox nodded. "The answer must lie with when Hax was first created. Your theory was that the lookout program would have been absorbed by Deuce over a period of time, but Deuce tried to purge the file, rejecting the whole idea. Yet the program still exists, as a sentient mind, and is now taking more and more control away from Deuce."

It took a moment, but all but Ironhide tensed as realisation hit them.

"Oh no…" Ratchet groaned.

"This is just a theory right?" Bumblebee piped up, desperation in his optics. "You could be wrong."

"What? What am I missing?" Ironhide snapped, only to be stilled by Optimus's reply.

"Hax is absorbing Deuce the same way Deuce was absorbing the lookout program."

To be continued . . .